Who We Are

TimeWave is a transatlantic collective that focuses on the intersection of arts/media and technology. Our original mission was to bridge the transatlantic divide between the US and UK as well as the chasm between NYC theater and the LA TV/film world via digital technology. By broadcasting new work (e.g., rehearsed readings) of underexploited artists, producers and other creative executives could view original material in Internet time. In addition, these broadcasts were viewed by larger audiences worldwide.

As immersive technologies come of age, TimeWave is currently exploring virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality. We’ve launched the XR Lab to train and nurture the next generation of media creators.

John David Coles is an award-winning director and producer known for evocative material with compelling performances. He has enjoyed success in features, television and theater while his production company, Talking Wall Pictures, has focused on the development of cutting-edge feature and television projects. Coles’ first feature film, Signs Of Life, starred Beau Bridges, Vincent D’Onofrio and Mary Louise Parker. The film won the International Critics Prize at the Deauville Film Festival and the Best Director award at the Cadiz festival in Spain. Other credits include Rising Son starring Brian Dennehy and Matt Damon (winner of the Audience award at Deauville); Darrow starring Kevin Spacey; Friends At Last starring Kathleen Turner; The Good Fight, starring Christine Lahti and Against Her Will starring Marlee Matlin. In the world of episodic television, Coles has directed numerous award-winning series, including West Wing, Sex and the City, Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy and Damages. Coles also directed and produced Thief which led to Andre Braughers’ Emmy award. His executive producer credits include Elementary with Lucy Liu and Jonny Lee Miller, Law & Order: Criminal Intent with Jeff Goldblum, 3LBSwith Stanley Tucci, andNew Amsterdam. Coles continues to write and create original dramas through Talking Wall Pictures, which produced the CBS dramaSongs in Ordinary Time (based on the Oprah Book Club pick) starring Sissy Spacek and Beau Bridges and co-created and executive produced the series Crash and Burn. Talking Wall has developed numerous projects with HBO, CBS, New Line, IFC and Bravo. His Off-broadway credits include directing the critically acclaimed play The Impostor by J Dakota Powell, starring Austin Pendleton and Calista Flockhart.

Michael Steger

Michael Steger is known for his role, “Navid Shirazi,” on CW’s drama series 90210 as well as Assisting Venus (2010) and The Cheetah Girls: One World (2008).He is currently lensing as “Riley Smith” in the film, The Circle.

Brandee Tucker

Brandee Tucker can be seen in the film, The Punisher: Dirty Laundry, with Thomas Jane and Ron Perlman. Her one-woman show Brandee Built on Crazee – a comedy loosely based on her life – was directed by Michael Steger and Sean Hankinson. In this show, Tucker plays over 15 characters where she walks the audience through her experiences starting from age six. The audience meets childhood bullies, a beauty shop guru, relatives with mental illness and an inspiring grandmother. The show premiered to a sold out audience in November 2011 and will be on iTunes in 2013.

J Dakota Powell

Producing Artistic Director J Dakota Powell gathered the American theatre to respond in 911 in Brave New World on Broadway. Plays include: Bliss Moon, The Impostor, Savage Light, Blackwater, Harry Black. Harry Black was produced in the Ensemble Studio Theatre’s New Works Series. Blackwater was selected for the National Playwrights Conference, O’Neill Theatre Center and by John Guare for the Lincoln Center Reading Series. The Impostor was twice nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Award and received an Honourable Mention for the Jane Chambers Playwrighting Award. Powell has been produced by the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, the Philadephia Theater Company’s New Works Series, Circle Repertory Theatre Lab, the Ensemble Studio Theatre and Duke University’s New Works Series; she has been commissioned by South Coast Repertory Theatre, Talking Wall Pictures, PBS Great Performances. Powell is a winner of the Writers Guild of America, East screenwriting fellowship (NYC) and won the Scriptapalooza (LA) competition.

Powell is a multi-disciplinary artist and is working on a Virtual Reality narrative game in the wuxia (Chinese martial arts, chivalry and sorcery) genre. She has also illustrated and animated a graphic novel. Her skills include: Maya, Unity, sound and video editing, Photoshop and coding. To view her creative portfolio, please see: jdakotapowell.com

Graduate of Yale, ITP/NYU and the Ensemble Studio Theater (NYC) 2-year program in acting, writing and directing.

Ben Mills

Associate Artistic Director (London) Ben Mills is an emerging talent and a Westminster Film School graduate whose award-winning short film “Wrestling Yetis” was called “funny, heartwarming” by Alice Jones in the Independent and screened at the BFI, the House of Commons and the Olympic Park. He has previously collaborated with LoNyLa for TimeWave Festival 2013, directing Off The Hook by Jonathan Guy Lewis. Mills’ theatre directing work includes A TED* Talk with Clay JW Crowne (Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh Festival), Baggage (Salisbury Playhouse and the Roundhouse, London) and the European/Japanese tour of Maid Marian for White Horse Theatre, playing to audiences of over 40,000. He is part of the Young Vic Genesis Directors Program and the Proteus Artist Development Program, and was the 2014 JMK Assistant Director at the Salisbury Playhouse. He is currently Experiment Associate Curator at the Nuffield Theatre, Southampton.

Drayton Hiers

Drayton Hiers is a writer, director and dramaturg. His plays, films, and performances have been seen in Singapore at the Arts House, 72-13, and the SPORE Arts Salon; in New York at Eyebeam, the Bushwick Starr, Anthology Film Archives, and The Tank NYC; and in Amsterdam at Het Muiderpoort Theatre. He has worked as a director and dramaturg with Jean Tay (“Between Us”), Chong Tze Chien (“The Book of Living and Dying”), and Su Ching Teh (“Call Me Bea and Ubin”). He lectures at NYU Tisch School of the Arts Asia and Singapore Repertory Theatre, and holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU Tisch Asia.

Our Advisors

Pun Bandhu is an award-winning actor and two time Tony Award-winning Broadway producer. He graduated with his MFA in Acting from the Yale School of Drama and has appeared on Broadway, Off Broadway and at regional theaters across the country. He has a special interest in new work and has originated roles in world premiere plays by playwrights such as Theresa Rebeck, AR Gurney, John Pielmiere and David Henry Hwang among others. In 2010, he received the Colorado Theatre Guild’s Henry Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Play. He has played guest star and co-starring roles on TV shows such as Body of Proof, Without a Trace, White Collar, Nurse Jackie, and all Law and Orders (including Conviction). In movies he can be seen in Michael Clayton, Burn After Reading and the upcoming Two Days in New York starring Chris Rock (summer 2012).

As a producer, Pun has started his own theatre company, a shorts film festival, and as a partner in ZenDog Productions, has produced two Tony Award-winning projects on Broadway, GlenGarry Glen Ross (Best Play Revival 2005) and Spring Awakening (Best Musical, 2007). Spring Awakening also won the Drama Desk Award, Lucille Lortel Award, Outer Critics Circle Award and New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical, toured the US for two years and has been translated and seen in over 40 productions around the world. In addition to Broadway, ZenDog Productions has also been involved in productions in London, most recently with the first revival of Fiddler on the Roof. Pun was given the “Star of Asia” award by the Austin Asian American Chamber of Commerce and was honored at the New York Musical Theatre Festival Gala as one of “The Next Generation of Broadway Producers.” He is a frequent speaker on theatre and marketing panels, is called upon to adjudicate festivals and competitions and has been featured in periodicals such as Variety, The New York Times, American Theatre and Fast Company Magazine.

(Director) John Gould Rubin’s recent directing credits include: Hedda Gabler which he staged in a Town House for 25 people per performance, Little Doc at Rattlestick, The Importance of Being Ernest for Twin Tiers Theatre and In the Daylight at the McGinn-Cazale. Was Co-Artistic and Executive Director of LAByrinth Theater Company for which he directed the premieres of Philip Roth in Khartoum and Penalties & Interest (both as part of Public/LAB at The Public Theater); STopless; The Trail of Her Inner Thigh by Erin Cressida Wilson; John Patrick Shanley’s A Winter Party; (and co-created and directed:) Dreaming in Tongues; and Mémoire. He co-created and directed The Erotica Project for the NYSF; Trial By Water for Ma-Yi; A Taste of Honey at Playwrights Horizons; Blood in the Sink at Urban Stages; both A Matter Of Choice and NAMI for Partial Comfort; Rebecca Gilman’s The Land of Little Horses, Frank McGuiness’ Factory Girls, Timberlake Westenbaker’s Three Birds Alighting on a Field and Richard Nelson’s Franny’s Way, for the Stella Adler Studio; EST’s and Naked Angel’s Marathons; The Fartiste for the NY Fringe Festival (Best Musical.) He wrote (and played Ivan Boesky in) The Predators’ Ball (collaborating with Karole Armitage and David Salle) for the Teatro Comunale in Florence, Italy, and at BAM’s Next Wave Festival. He recently directed his first film, Almost Home for Trigger Street Independent, which was presented at The Berkshire Film Festival.

(Producer) For LAByrinth Rubin produced Our Lady of 121st Street (and it’s commercial production off-Broadway), and Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train at Center Stage/NY; Off-Broadway (two Drama Desk noms.); at the Edinburgh Theatre Festival (Fringe First Award); at The Donmar Warehouse; and at The Arts Theatre on the West End in London (Olivier Award nom.) Mr. Rubin produced a tour of Macbeth with Stephen Dillane playing all the roles at the Almeida Theater in London, the Sydney Theater in Australia and New Zealand.

(Actor) As an actor, Rubin appeared at The Public Theater/NYSF in the SPF production of The Sacrifices, Second Stage in John Patrick Shanley’s play, Cellini, on B’way opposite Glenn Close and Gene Hackman in Death and The Maiden, under Mike Nichol’s direction; in the title role of Moliere’s Don Juan, at The Mark Taper Forum in L.A. under the direction of Travis Preston, for which he received the DramaLogue Award in Acting; as Jacques in John Tillinger’s production of As You Like it; in Martin Crimp’s adaptation of The Misanthrope, with Uma Thurman and Roger Rees; as well as in the lead role of Mr. Crimp’s Play With Repeats, with Francis McDormand. Rubin’s film appearances include the Spanish film by Juanma Bajo Ulloa, Frágil, The Out-of-Towners, Three Men and a Baby and Dead Again. Television appearances include New York News, Good Advice, Law & Order (all versions, many times) and The Story Behind the Story.

Elyse Singer is a director/writer/producer and the Founding Artistic Director of the OBIE-winning theatre company Hourglass Group. Her work has been seen Off-Broadway, regionally and internationally. Her original multi-media play Frequency Hopping won the International STAGE Playwriting Competition and ran at 3LD Art & Technology Center. Singer’s Off-Broadway directing credits include Trouble in Paradise; the first NYC revival of Mae West’s 1926 play SEX; the first US revival of West’s Pleasure Man (starring Charles Busch); and Deborah Swisher’s Hundreds of Sisters & One BIG Brother. Singer’s other original works include Love in the Void, Care-less: Eva Tanguay and Private Property. As producer: Beebo Brinker Chronicles Off-Broadway at 37 Arts (co-produced with Lily Tomlin, Jane Wagner and Harriet Newman Leve), winner of the 2008 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding New York Theater. A Yale graduate, Singer is a Usual Suspect at NYTW, an alum of the LCT Directors Lab and a member of the League of Professional Theatre Women. She is represented by Bret Adams, Ltd. and is a member of the Stage Directors and Choreographers Society.

Nina Steiger is Associate Director at Soho Theatre (London) and leads the Writers’ Centre there. Prior to this post, Nina worked for seven years in the New York and regional theatres with such organisations as Ensemble Studio Theatre, New York Stage & Film and Hartford Stage Company alongside freelance work with companies such as The Foundry Theatre, Roundabout Theatre and Manhattan Theatre Club.

Nina also serves as a freelance dramaturg for screen writers, is on the editorial boards of Brand literary journal and Theatre Forum magazine and is a Board member for ON Theatre and proto-type theater, an International Affiliate Member of the League of Professional Theatre Women and a consultant for the UK Style Council, Theatre Sandbox, the Hospital Club and INN, an international performance project. As a writer, her work has been commissioned, produced and published in London, New York and Montreal.